Ghost's Ticklish Quest, Part 1

Author's note: There is a 3 part prologue taking place before this, which contains several important events that likely won't be mentioned in the story (for reasons relating to one of said events). However, knowledge of them is by no means needed to follow the story.

“Why do I always have to do things that hard way?” Ghost thought to herself, as she trudged through the thick underbrush. It had been a week since she had won the tickling contest, and although she still had a decent amount of money, old habits die hard. So instead of paying to hitch a ride with a merchant caravan through the woods, she opted to go on foot, and went straight through the woods rather than the winding path that travellers normally took. The forest didn’t have any major predators in it, but even if it did, she could generally escape from what she couldn’t kill. Of course, she had forgotten to account for the most dangerous predator of all, as well as the old saying of there being “no honour among thieves”. So she was taken by surprise when a pair of figures jumped out of the woods, the larger of the two pinning Ghost beneath her, as her satchel was knocked off her shoulder onto the ground. She struggled to get free, but her assailant was too heavy. Both were clad in dark grey cloaks, which evidently helped them hide in the shadowy foliage.

“Well well well, what do we have here, little sister?” asked the taller of the two figures, folding back her hood to reveal short black hair that framed her tan face, and an Amazonian stature.

“Looks like someone who’s about to get robbed, big sister” replied the smaller one. She was roughly Ghost’s size, and had the same black hair and tan skin as her partner. Combined with her very similar face, there was little doubt that they were, in fact, sisters. With a soft meow, a grey cat emerged from the bushes and rubbed itself against her leg. Drawing out a knife, “Big” pressed it gently against Ghost’s neck. “Now hand over your valuables”.

Managing to keep surprisingly calm, Ghost looked her in the eye, and replied “What valuables?” while thinking “amateurs”. Ghost knew a killer when she saw one, and neither of these thieves were going to do anything more than threaten her. And what kind of thief exposes their face on purpose? Or tells someone they’ve pinned to hand over something? Especially when that person clearly had nothing, outside of a magic satchel no one could see, at least. She had even taken to stashing her equipment in it when she wasn’t actually robbing someone, which made her look much less suspicious. Of course, she kept out her daggers when she wasn’t somewhere safe, such as here, but “Little” slid her belt off, tossing it on the ground.

Looking around, Big quickly realized that Ghost didn’t actually have anything other than the two daggers. “Tell me where your valuables are or else!” she demanded.

“I don’t have any. But I don’t think you’re willing to use that knife anyway” Ghost said with a sneer.

“What do we do big sister, she’s not falling for it” Little said in a hushed tone, though in no way quite enough to prevent Ghost from hearing her.

Big shushed her, then started thinking. Her face lit up when she came up with an idea, as a grin formed on her face. “Well, if you won’t tell us on your own, we’ll just have to make you. And I think you’ll be more than willing to do so, because you’ve stumbled into the woods of… the tickle thieves!”

Ghost fumed when she said that. SHE was the tickle thief! These two clearly just thought up the idea of tickling on the spot. Her anger was quickly replaced with fear, though, when she realized what was in store for her, and tried struggling against the large girl’s powerful grip. Big slid behind Ghost and pulled her arms up, then bent them back behind her head, holding them tightly, as Little straddled her, while she kicked her legs in helpless frustration. Then, it began. Little dug into her sides, as she started laughing uncontrollably.

“NOOOOO HAHAHAHA SOMEBODY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HELP HAHAHAHA ME HAHAHAHA!”

“No one’s going to hear you out here” Big said.

“Besides, who’s going to risk fighting armed thieves over a bit of tickling?” taunted Little, as she dug into Ghost’s ribs. Ghost knew they were right, but calling for help was her only choice. She didn’t want to give up her stuff, but worse than that, what if they wouldn’t see her satchel even if she drew their attention to it? Maybe she could convince them she didn’t have anything?

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOOK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AROUND HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I DON’T HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAVE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ANY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THING HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Do you really expected us to believe that?” asked Little. “That you would wander through the woods without any supplies? I’ll bet you heard us up ahead, and hid your stuff. Now tell us where, or the tickling will continue!” She punctuated this point by scratching Ghost’s bare armpits, while her sister struggled to hold her still.

“She’s a lot stronger than she looks, little sister” Big complained “I’ll hold her here, go get something we can tie her up with”. Little ran off into the woods, while Big wrapped her legs around Ghost’s waist, holding her in place. Ghost knew that if they tied her up, she was in trouble.

“Hehehe please don’t hehehe” she begged, still giggling “anything but that.” But she could tell it was no use.

“Oh yes, soon you’ll be completely helpless, and we can tickle you until you tell us what we want to know. Hell, we can tickle you after you tell us, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it! You’ll be ours to tickle as long as we want!”

Little soon returned with several strong but flexible vines, and the pair got to work. Ghost struggled, screamed, begged, kicked, and cursed, but soon enough, they had her tied up. They pulled her knees to her chest, then wrapped a vine below her knees and around her torso. Next they looped a length around her wrists, with her arms still pulled back over her head, tying it to the loop around her torso.  They then carried her to a stump while she kicked in vain, placing the outstretched lower half of her legs on it, before looping a vine around her ankles and tying it tightly across the top of the stump. Finally, they yanked off her boots and socks, revealing her soft, sensitive, pale little feet, which squirmed in the cool air. Little brought along her daggers, and even unknowingly carried the satchel carrying the gold they wanted to the stump, never realizing it was there. The cat followed dutifully.

“Last chance to tell us. If you don’t we’ll tickle you all day, even if you do tell us. And if you still haven’t given up when it’s time to head back to our hideout, we’ll drag you back with us, and then you’re really in for it. Cause once you know where our hideout is, we can NEVER let you go.” Big said, with a cruel grin.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. There’s a satchel right there, but you can’t notice it, because it’s magic. If you untie me, I’ll take my stuff out of it for you!” She really didn’t want to give it up, but if this didn’t work, she was in a lot of trouble. She just hoped they believed her, though it was a longshot.

“Well, I must say I’ve never heard that one before” Big mocked, and Ghost’s heart sank. “You must think we’re the dumbest people in the world, if you expect us to fall for that!”

“Wait, I swear it’s true!” Ghost blurted out in a panic as Big sat in front of her feet, and Little sat behind her. “If I’m lying, it’s not like I could get away from the both of you anyway!”

“Well, you’re right about that. You won’t be getting away from us. But that’s because we won’t untie you. Looks like we’re doing this the fun way.”

“If you’re smart” added Little “you’ll tell us where it is before we have to head back. Of course, you don’t know when that is, so the longer you wait, the riskier it gets.” And without anything further, they began to tickle their captive.

Big got to work on her soles, grabbing a small black feather off the ground and brushing it over Ghost’s arches, while Little went to work on her sides. Ghost was in hysterics almost instantly.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I SWEAR HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I HAVE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOTHING HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STOP HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STOP HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA PLEASE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STOP HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA CAN’T HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STAND HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA IT!”

“So you admit you lied about your ‘magic bag’!” shouted Big “I think that deserves some punishment, don’t you, little sister?” The feather she wielded cruelly brushed up and down and around Ghost’s soft pale feet, tickling like mad. Despite the light touch, it excited Ghost’s nerve endings to no end, as she tried in vain to scrunch her feet, only for them to spasm open uncontrollably as they squirmed in a pointless attempt to escape.

“I agree big sister” Little gleefully replied “Maybe we should take her back with us even if she does tell us!” She was sticking to her fingers, although it was proving just as, if not more, effective. She had reached her hands under Ghost’s top, and was scratching her ribs directly. This caused her shirt to ride up, but her knees tied to her chest blocked her lucky feather from their view. Although she wasn’t concerned about it (after all, they were already tickling her with a feather), Ghost had dodged a bullet being tied like this.

“NO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’M HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SORRY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FORGIVE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ME HAHAHAHA!”

“Well, okay if you’re sorry” said Little. “Of course, we’re still waiting for you to tell us, so it may be a moot point.”

“How much time do you have left, I wonder” taunted Big “Maybe our hideout is just a few feet away, and you have hours before we need to go back? Maybe it’s on the other side of the forest, and you have 10 seconds to tell us before you become ours to tickle whenever we want.” As to emphasize this point, the two stopped tickling for several seconds, while Ghost struggled to catch her breath.

“Well, guess it’s not that far!” said Little with a huge smirk, as they went back to tickling. Big pulled Ghost’s toes apart, and began to saw the feather in the sensitive spaces between them, as Ghost tried in vain to pull her toes out of the thief’s strong grip. But alas, it was all for naught. Nothing she did got her any relief from the soft tormenting tool as it tickled her sensitive skin.

Little’s hands then poked out from under Ghost’s top, scratching away at her helpless armpits, causing her eyes to go wide with ticklish shock. The sharp nails were too much for the soft skin of Ghost’s pits to handle, and she started to perspire from the intense torment. Unfortunately, the sweat just made her armpits slippery, allowing the thief’s nails to scratch up and down them even faster. This started a vicious cycle of the increasing effectiveness of the tickling nails making Ghost sweat more, which caused the nails to increase in effectiveness. And while Ghost couldn’t stand it, Little reacted to the realization like a kid at Christmas, enthusiastically taking full advantage of Ghost’s increased vulnerability.

The sweat did, however, dampen the tip of the feather, make it ineffective as it clung to her skin, and Big didn’t feel like getting sweat under her nails. However, she had a trick up her sleeve. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a hairbrush, covered in stiff horsehair bristles. But would it tickle this woman’s pale little feet? She began to rapidly brush it back and forth across Ghost’s arches, and it quickly became clear that it did indeed tickle

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SWE- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SWEAR HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THAT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I DO- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DO -HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DON’T HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAVE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ANY- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ANYTHING!” Ghost screamed, having trouble forming words now.

“Are we going over this again?” asked Big, sounding bored. “Listen, you’re going to give in sooner or later, you might as well save yourself a lot of trouble and just tell us where you hid your stuff”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” Ghost just laughed and laughed, unable to even form a response anymore, so bad was the brush on her soles.

After 15 straight minutes of this, Big stopped, and spoke to her sister. “Little sister, let’s talk privately for a few minutes”

“We can’t stop now” Little objected “if we want her to give up, we can’t afford to give her a break”

“Oh, don’t worry about that” said Big with a cruel grin. She took out a bottle filled with some kind of white liquid. Even without the brush on her feet, Ghost was too tired to notice. Little, however, did notice, and realized both what it was and what her big sister was planning, and stopped tickling. Although Ghost hadn’t noticed Big take out the bottle, she snapped to attention when she felt the liquid being poured on her feet, both so pale white that you almost couldn’t even see the milk. Initially, she responded with puzzlement. Then the thieves’ cat jumped onto the stump, and began to sniff her feet, the wet nose making her giggle, as she realized the intent.

“Hehehe, oh no, hehe please don’t let it lick my feEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” Her plea was quickly swallowed by laughter as the cat began to lick the milk off her feet, while the two thieves’ retreated a short distance to talk.

“I don’t think she’s going to break, little sister.”

“So, we decided we’d just take her back with us, remember?”

“That was just a threat, we can’t really do that. We’re thieves, not kidnappers. Besides, what happens if we took her back and she did tell us where her stuff is? If we let her go, and she makes it to a town, then we’re in trouble. The local militia may not divert a whole lot of resources to searching the forest for a pair of thieves, but I’ll bet they won’t abide thieves who imprison people.”

“Who says we have to let her go? She could be ours to tickle forever!”

“And what happens if someone is expecting her wherever she’s going, and send out a search party? Or she escapes? And don’t forget, that’s another mouth to feed. That only leaves one other option, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to make the jump from threating people to killing them.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that. So what do we do, just let her go?”

“Of course not. We say we’re letting her go, then we follow her, to see where her stuff is. Then, we jump her. And if she really doesn’t have anything, at least we had some fun.”

“We can wait a bit more before then, can’t we?” asked Little with a grin.

Listening to Ghost’s helpless laughter, Big grinned back “Of course. Besides, it would be mean to disturb kitty’s meal.”

The two snuck back, and watched hidden from the bushes as the cat continued to lick Ghost’s feet. Ghost had been laughing the whole time, the cat’s tongue proving to be a near perfect tickling tool. It was warm, wet, and just rough enough to tickle the hell out of her pampered feet. It licked up and down Ghost’s arches, heel, and even passed between her toes a few times, neither stopping when Ghost’s squirming feet smacked it, or it ran out of milk, content to lick the salty sweat off the smooth soles, creating a ticklish loop even worse than her sweaty armpits had. Even though the thieves had shown no mercy, being tickled by something that was completely unaware of the effect it was having was somehow even worse, as Ghost knew it wouldn’t end until the thieves got back, never realizing they were watching the whole thing.

They continued to watch for an agonizing half an hour, until Ghost’s shortness of breath caused her laughter to turn silent. Of course, this wouldn’t have prevented her from staying conscious indefinitely. Mercifully, though, the thieves quickly grew bored of watching her silently struggle, and emerged from the bushes. Without a word, they cut the vines, and Big picked up the cat, who struggled in her arms to get back to the salty feet it craved. They then disappeared into the brush, seemingly gone. It took Ghost a full 5 minutes to recover enough that she could put on her socks and shoes, and she set off towards her next location, unaware that the pair followed her to the forest’s edge, while they remained unaware of the bag she carried.